Advice for making WDW Picture Schedule Binder for 5 year old Autistic Son About This Page:

[alexsmommy0412]

We are taking our 5 year old Autistic son Alex to WDW in Oct. As we get closer I want to prepare Alex for the trip and what our schedule is. Alex is kind of verbal but has some receptive language issues, he doesn't always understand what we say and that can lead to pretty harsh meltdowns. Or he has formed a plan in his head but can't tell us what he wants and when we don't follow the plan again meltdown.

I want to prepare him as best I can for our trip and he responds better to visual things; Picture Schedules, Videos, Social Stories ect. I started a social story of our trip for Alex but it just seems to be getting tedious and boring. I am also not sure he understands what it is.

So I am kind of stuck. I know there are a few parents with Autistic children on the boards and I hope you don't that I am reaching out to find out how you prepare your son/daughter for your trip. Do you make your child a binder or visual schedule and would you mind sharing pictures?

We use an ipad with him as well so any recommendations would be appreciated as well.

We are very flexible with what we do at parks and kinda go with his flow but ADR's we do not usually change.

Any help/advice would be appreciated. Thank You

[Sandra Bostwick]

Hi there, and welcome!

Most of my hints are in this e-book, so I'll give you the link.

Navigating Disney on ADVANCE for Occupational Therapy Practitioners

I haven't actually travelled with a child on the Spectrum, though. I'm sure someone will be along soon who can give you some insights into that.

[CinderAbby]

Keeping in mind I'm very low tech (we just got an Ipad because school required it), I've done the social story route for Abby. Best advice? Do a little bit a day because it is very exhausting to do it. I won't lie - I spent weeks and weeks on ours. I did all the typing - simple one sentence lines - and then had to upload the photos to the program and line it up with the sentences.

I acutally just went back and looked at one that I still have in my computer and I started on our travel days (for the years we took the train) and in that one, I used pictures I had taken. For getting up early, I had Abby sitting in bed pretending to stretch and yawn. I took a picture of our van to show getting in the van to drive. I found a picture for where we were planning on eating lunch (at that time, it was strictly McDonalds). I found a picture for our hotel that night and I had a picture of Abby in bed sleeping (she was actually asleep for that one, no pretending needed) for bed time. The next day, I had her getting up again, Lenny's van again, a picture of the train station I found online as well as a picture of the train. I also had a picture of the dining car to signify eating dinner there. So for our travel days, I really walked her step by step of what we would be doing and when (as best as I could guess time wise). Once we got to Disney for the days, I would have Abby getting up and going to whichever park with a picture of the icon. I didn't schedule when to do rides but I would put in there the ADR and the time with a picture of the restaurant/sign of the restaurant/whichever would be more recognizable to Abby for her to understand "we're going here to eat and have a good time like the last time." If you're doing character meals, maybe have a picture of the character if it would help. Short of sending you a copy of everything I did (and where I have it saved, I don't think I can even upload copies of the pages here), I hope I've been somewhat of a help.

I'm not sure exactly how you could do all of this with an Ipad (I'm still learning it myself) but mine was old fashioned ink and paper. Something - at the time - that Abby could hold in her hands and read over and over and over again. As Abby has gotten older though (and more familiar with Disney) she hasn't needed the social stories anymore. It's enough that I make my iitineraries (with no pictures) that she can read over when she wants but she doesn't always want to. She knows where going and knows what a trip to Disney involves (one good part of Abby growing up).

Good luck though getting it done in time.

[notjustamom]

I know there are a few parents with Autistic children on the boards and I hope you don't that I am reaching out to find out how you prepare your son/daughter for your trip.

. Reach out anytime! I have no suggestions for you as my son has always greatly disliked social stories . He loves the computer and iPad so we go on You Tube and watch videos of the parks and rides. We just do a LOT of talking about it before hand BUT that doesn't mean he doesn't have meltdowns when our schedule conflicts with his. We've learned to compromise - you want to watch the people come down Splash Mountain? We give a limit on the number of times then have him do something his sister wants to do.

[CinderAbby]

Let's see if this works

Okay, with the help of an equally old program, I was able to take "pictures" of some of my pages to give you examples. Something happened to my pictures on the pages - the colors are funny but at least my pages will give you an idea of what I did for Abby. Just click on each thumbnail and you'll get a bigger picture.

[alexsmommy0412]

Originally Posted by CinderAbby

Keeping in mind I'm very low tech (we just got an Ipad because school required it), I've done the social story route for Abby. Best advice? Do a little bit a day because it is very exhausting to do it. I won't lie - I spent weeks and weeks on ours. I did all the typing - simple one sentence lines - and then had to upload the photos to the program and line it up with the sentences.

I acutally just went back and looked at one that I still have in my computer and I started on our travel days (for the years we took the train) and in that one, I used pictures I had taken. For getting up early, I had Abby sitting in bed pretending to stretch and yawn. I took a picture of our van to show getting in the van to drive. I found a picture for where we were planning on eating lunch (at that time, it was strictly McDonalds). I found a picture for our hotel that night and I had a picture of Abby in bed sleeping (she was actually asleep for that one, no pretending needed) for bed time. The next day, I had her getting up again, Lenny's van again, a picture of the train station I found online as well as a picture of the train. I also had a picture of the dining car to signify eating dinner there. So for our travel days, I really walked her step by step of what we would be doing and when (as best as I could guess time wise). Once we got to Disney for the days, I would have Abby getting up and going to whichever park with a picture of the icon. I didn't schedule when to do rides but I would put in there the ADR and the time with a picture of the restaurant/sign of the restaurant/whichever would be more recognizable to Abby for her to understand "we're going here to eat and have a good time like the last time." If you're doing character meals, maybe have a picture of the character if it would help. Short of sending you a copy of everything I did (and where I have it saved, I don't think I can even upload copies of the pages here), I hope I've been somewhat of a help.

I'm not sure exactly how you could do all of this with an Ipad (I'm still learning it myself) but mine was old fashioned ink and paper. Something - at the time - that Abby could hold in her hands and read over and over and over again. As Abby has gotten older though (and more familiar with Disney) she hasn't needed the social stories anymore. It's enough that I make my iitineraries (with no pictures) that she can read over when she wants but she doesn't always want to. She knows where going and knows what a trip to Disney involves (one good part of Abby growing up).

Good luck though getting it done in time.

With our iPad if I do word document I can put that on our iPad and look through it with him. I'm going to do it in a binder for him as we'll so he can hold it too. Plus he loves to flip pages in books. I never did this for our past trips and looking back if he was a little prepared he probably would have handled certain things we had scheduled better. His teachers have told us how well he responds to visuals so now picture routines and schedules will become our friend.

Originally Posted by notjustamom

. Reach out anytime! I have no suggestions for you as my son has always greatly disliked social stories . He loves the computer and iPad so we go on You Tube and watch videos of the parks and rides. We just do a LOT of talking about it before hand BUT that doesn't mean he doesn't have meltdowns when our schedule conflicts with his. We've learned to compromise - you want to watch the people come down Splash Mountain? We give a limit on the number of times then have him do something his sister wants to do.

We watch YouTube as well. We try to do some talking but we aren't sure what he understands and what he doesn't. We have definitely learned compromise with him lately.

Originally Posted by CinderAbby

Let's see if this works

Okay, with the help of an equally old program, I was able to take "pictures" of some of my pages to give you examples. Something happened to my pictures on the pages - the colors are funny but at least my pages will give you an idea of what I did for Abby. Just click on each thumbnail and you'll get a bigger picture.

Thank you so much for the examples that is exactly the kind of thing I am doing.

[mfirst]

Keep in mind, my little guy wasn't three yet on our last trip, but for our summer travels, I use something similar to Darlene's (CinderAbby) suggestion. I printed a set of pictures that we made into a flip book to show our "schedule". Van for travel. Because he grasps "video" time, I would have the next card show the number of movies = to the length of time in the car. A trip to "Lala and Papa's" house = 3 movies, a trip to "grammy's" is 2, going from Lala's to Kalihari = 1 movie, etc. I then put a picture of his bike and other toys we leave at my mom's house to show we'd spend the day playing. The next page had pictures from the zoo, etc. He seemed to respond well to the picture flip chart.

We haven't purchased an I pad (yet) so we're still very old school - we print photos and put them in a small flip book to show the day's events. They've helped reduce his meltdowns in the car.

[SueM loves WDW]

Since you already have an iPad, have you thought about any apps to make social stories?

The one I am most familiar with is Pictello.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pict...397858008?mt=8

It is a bit more expensive than some, but it is very adaptable and easy to use. You can add pictures from your iPad photo album or take pictures inside the app.
It also has a voice, and you can either have it read automatically or advance it page by page.

For pictures of WDW, you can find a lot here in the Passporter photo albums and the Disney website has good pictures.

[SueM loves WDW]

This is a link to a blog with reviews of one visual schedule apps that might be helpful.
Even if you are making paper schedules or already have an app you could use, it might give you some ideas.
Ten great visual support apps | Small But Kinda Mighty

[busybee1]

A laminated flip chart on an "o" ring works great, too. You can then attach it to a stroller.

We've included:
park maps, land maps. photos of favorite rides,restaurants, restrooms, hotel, pool, characters, photo of cast member id badges, first aid, baby lounge etc.

A wipe off crayon or marker is great to use on the laminated pages. Our son liked having control and communicating by circling and x'ing things.